Convicts in China Milk Scandal Appeal Sentences

BEIJING (AP) - Four people given hefty sentences including thedeath penalty for involvement in China's deadly tainted milkscandal appealed their decisions before a court Thursday.

Six children died and nearly 300,000 were sickened after babyformula was contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine,which is high in nitrogen, in an effort to fool quality tests forprotein content. When ingested, melamine can cause kidney stonesand kidney failure.

Four middlemen were found guilty earlier this year for theirroles in supplying hundreds of tons of melamine-tainted milk to thedairies named in the scandal. Two were sentenced to death, anotherto life in prison, and one to eight years.

The appeals were heard in the northern city of Shijiazhuang,home of the dairy at the center of the scandal, the now-defunctSanlu Group Co. A man who answered the phone at the ShijiazhuangIntermediate Court said Thursday that justices from the HebeiProvince High People's Court were there to hear the cases. He hungup before giving further details.

This week, a northern Chinese court also accepted a compensationlawsuit against Sanlu, the first in the country to do so, statemedia reported Wednesday.

"This is the first time a court has accepted a lawsuit (in thescandal), so we applaud the decision," lawyer Peng Jian said.

The court's decision comes after a top official of China'shighest court, Shen Deyong, announced this month that parents ofsickened children who rejected government compensation were welcome to sue Sanlu and 21 other dairies involved in the tainted milkscandal.

Peng said the family was asking for 31,000 yuan ($4,538) incompensatory damages from Sanlu, which was based in Shijiazhuang.Peng said the victim, an 11-month-old girl, had become ill afterdrinking Sanlu's infant formula.

The government has offered one-time payouts using money fromdairies named in the scandal, but families that take the moneycannot sue for more unless they can prove they were forced to agreeto the compensation plan.

Some 500 families have rejected the offer in hopes of winninghigher compensation from the companies involved. About another 100families accepted the compensation from the dairies but stillwanted higher payouts than what the government-sanctioned planoffered.

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